


Strength Versus Heart

by completelyhopeless



Category: Gone With the Wind
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Community: comment_fic, Gen, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 07:58:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2724719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/completelyhopeless/pseuds/completelyhopeless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strength means different things to different people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strength Versus Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/gifts).



> For the prompt: _[Gone with the Wind. any. The strength of a woman.](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/388419.html?thread=65842755#t65842755)_
> 
> Scarlett is strong, so she's an obvious choice, but I thought a lot about all the quiet strength Melanie had, too. I don't think that this really captures that part, but it does kind of go into it.
> 
> And I couldn't resist throwing in a couple quotes.

* * *

_

“I didn't fetch you on Miss Scarlett's account. What that child got to stand, the good Lord give her strength to stand.” ~ Mammy

_

* * *

Scarlett had strength in spades, just like she had more charm than any one woman should have. They didn't like that. They thought it was perverse for a woman to have her kind of strength, her kind of boldness. She used to think that she could do with out a reputation, a belief encouraged by Rhett who said if she had courage she could.

She didn't lack courage, didn't lack strength, but that would never endear her to anyone. Rhett had claimed to admire it, but what he really admired was the same thing that everyone else admired.

Melanie Wilkes.

They loved Melanie in a way they would never love Scarlett.

She could endure war and poverty and famine. She could fight to restore her family's home, to keep all of them alive and sheltered, she could make something for herself from nothing, from the ashes of war and ravages of grief, but that would never matter to anyone.

She had strength, but she did not have love.

Melanie, who had never had anything but heart, she had all the love.

Scarlett would have given her some of her strength, would have forced it on her if such a thing were possible, but it was not. Her only friend was gone, and Rhett was gone.

She stood tall, though, because Scarlett O'Hara had strength. She would endure.


End file.
